College football preview: Four-team playoff favorites (Video)

The days of the BCS deciding college football’s national champion are over.

With the new four-team playoff in place, two more doors are open for top teams to sneak into the title picture. Judging by the AP preseason poll, that’s good news for the likes of Florida State, Alabama, Oregon, Oklahoma, Auburn and UCLA, among others.

Plus, there always seems to be that team that comes out of nowhere to steal some spotlight, so more opportunities make for a more open-ended race.

The four-team playoff also presents the scenario that at least one Power 5 conference will get left out of the picture altogether. Are the ACC, SEC And Pac-12 conferences safe from that fate with their top-ranked teams? Will it be the Big Ten and/or the Big 12 that is left on the outside looking in?

Perhaps even more intriguing: could one conference, namely the loaded SEC and Pac-12, place two teams in the championship bracket?